The Differences Between Plantation Shutters, Window Shades, And Window Blinds In Baltimore

Shades, blinds, and shutters–oh my! All the distinct window treatments out there will often feel a bit mind-boggling when you have to choose one for your Baltimore interior. Grasping the distinctions between each type will help you decide which styles will look and work best on the windows you have. We can help by exploring the advantages, disadvantages, and best spots for louvered shutters, window shades, and window blinds in Baltimore.

The Pros And Cons Of Interior Shutters

Louvered shutters are constructed of real wood or a highly durable composite and go inside your residence where they secure permanently to your window with the shutter’s frame positioned over the window’s framework. Easy-to-move panels inside the frame swing open for total light and a clear view or close again to encompass your window for privacy and darkness. When the panels are secured, you can also turn the rows of louvers for the right amount sunlight and shift them to divert light where you want it.

The Pros

Plantation shutters are distinctive from other window treatments thanks to their specialized design. Aside from looking quite different, they also provide many amazing bonuses for Baltimore homes:

• Enhance your home with alluring architectural detail

• Available in neutral hues to match your interior now and later if you redesign

• Provide total privacy and nearly full darkness when closed

• Open quickly for sunshine and a view

• Accommodate any specialty shaped window like half-circles and hexagons

• Redirect glare with the slats

• A cinch to dust off

• Deliver an extraordinary level of energy efficiency

• An enduring part of your interior that increases your Baltimore home’s value

• A range of customizable choices to create the appearance you would like while fulfilling your unique needs

Along with these pros, faux-wood Polywood® shutters feature their own noteworthy benefits: 

• Unrivaled resiliency with resistance to harm due to heat, cold, humidity, and UV rays

• Last a lifetime without bending, cracking, or nicking

• Innovative weatherstripping for impressive efficiency and money savings

Actually, Polywood shutters are able to do everything you require a window covering to accomplish, from upgrading your window’s beauty to blocking cold drafts and harmful sun rays. They’ll even operate and look just as superb decades later as the date you first got them.

The Cons

Louvered shutters’ lone drawback is that they can only be found in neutral colors. While their classic coloring matches all kinds of decor, you’ll have to go with window shades or blinds if you are determined to install window treatments in vivid colors or patterns.

How To Incorporate Interior Shutters

You are able to utilize louvered shutters on any window within your Baltimore property. Customized shutters work with every shape and size of window without sacrificing their function. Put them on circular, rake angle, and patio door windows just as simply as standard rectangular windows.

You can also place Polywood shutters in any area. Use them for their durability and superior efficiency in humid bathrooms, chilly attic dormers, or sun-splashed south-pointing rooms. Shutters even work great in family spaces and little ones’ rooms because they are made without cords that present a safety hazard.

The Pros And Cons Of Window Shades

Window shades are available in many contasting styles, although, for the most part, all consist of a sheet of fabric mounted over your window. You typically pull the fabric down or up to shield and unshield your window through the bottom pull bar or corded mechanism, but you will also discover motorized functionality too.

Window shades don’t use slats to provide partial sunlight and privacy, but lower opacity or less tightly woven fiber shades can permit light into lower-lit rooms while obscuring the sightline into your home. Or you can utilize top-down/bottom-up shades that allow you to reveal the upper region of your window for sunshine while protecting your privacy on the lower half.

The Pros

Baltimore residents enjoy window shades due to the fact they can be found in various styles, colors, and materials. You’ll find shades with neutral colors and vivid tints, one color or dramatic patterns, sheer or blackout types, neatly folded fabric or woven fibers, and various other possibilities. If you’re looking for a special design element when redecorating a room, window shades in just the right color or pattern can boost your ambience and shield your windows.

Distinct window shade kinds have their own benefits too. Roller shades have a restrained appearance. Cellular shades offer energy efficiency. Tumble shades work well on door windows. And sheer shades give you a pleasant blend of light and privacy.

The Cons

Window shades don’t offer the resiliency of firm window coverings and can be a chore to clean. Their fabric materials will eventually discolor on account of the sun or might pull apart, grow mold, or show stains. You should anticipate replacing window shades every three or four years as they break down or you alter your interior design.

Window shades also offer less capability in balancing sunlight and privacy than interior shutters. Even opening them part of the way means you lose your privacy on half of the window and you’re unable to adjust how sunshine floods in at the bottom. And many window shades will allow shadows to appear when your interior is illuminated during the night. And rectangular window shades in Baltimore make you to choose between hiding a non-traditional window’s uncommon size or leaving the window exposed at all times.

How To Incorporate Window Shades

Numerous Baltimore property owners use window shades if they want bold or patterned window coverings to blend with their decor. They work best in less active rooms where they won’t get damaged by frequent usage.

You might also employ some types of window shades for their specified purposes. Go with cellular shades to help block cool air from entering. Slim roller shades work in spots where you don’t want a larger window treatment. Blackout shades keep out light for better sleep. Woven fiber shades bring a feeling of nature to your decor. And of course, custom shades will unquestionably look and work better on your windows than store-bought shades.

The Pros And Cons Of Window Blinds

Window blinds consist of long, connected slats built from a rigid material that you bring down over your windows to conceal them. Blinds can be used with pull cords or cordless lift options. Along with covering windows with blinds, you can also tilt the slats open or closed with a bar for more control over natural light.

The Pros

The virtues of window blinds are dependent on the materials they’re fabricated with. By design, all blinds cover windows to block sunlight and views inside your Baltimore home, but their substance and quality of manufacturing determine how well they do this. You could see sunshine and shadows with low-cost vinyl blinds. Metal and vinyl blinds also bow and snap without much difficulty, leaving unattractive spaces that allow sunlight. For these blinds, their affordability and short lifespan make them suitable primarily as short-term window coverings.

Quality real wood and faux-wood blinds have sturdier slats that cover windows more completely. You won’t see through them, and they don’t fall apart rapidly. The natural wood and composite components, combined with the attractive defined contours of the slats, have a more sophisticated look as well. Top-end real wood and faux-wood blinds come in versatile neutral colors that look lovely in any space.

Blinds allow you to manage how much light passes through your windows. You are able to draw them up for an unfettered view and full light or lower them for privacy and darkness. If your blinds are drawn down, you may also turn the slats for a partial view and the right amount of natural light.

The Cons

Wood and faux-wood blinds appear similar to plantation shutters but aren’t as tough. The cords that hold the slats together can unravel in the long run, and wood slats can become misshapen and crack from too much moisture or extreme temperature changes. Blinds also include a great deal of elements that might make them difficult to clean, and blinds with pull cords might stick or get tangled when you attempt to adjust them.

Despite the fact that customized blinds will fit your windows in terms of size, they can’t give you the full protection around the borders that shutters can as they don’t have a frame. You’ll also find that both window blinds and shades in Baltimore are prone to sway and knock against your window if jostled or caught in a gust of air. That moving around opens a sightline to your interior and allows light.

How To Use Window Blinds

Custom blinds look great in any room for traditionally sized windows. Be sure to install waterproof faux-wood blinds in humid locations like kitchens and baths. And automated or cord-free blinds offer safer options in the event you have children or pets.

Sunburst Has Everything From Louvered Shutters To Window Blinds And Shades In Baltimore

Want to know more about the the variances between interior shutters, window blinds, and window shades in Baltimore? Sunburst Shutters Baltimore offers the best lineup of premium window treatments in the area and will is pleased to answer whatever questions you have. We conduct no-charge in-home consultations to exhibit our products and give you a chance to decide which window treatments make the most sense for your residence. Arrange yours by placing a call to 301-321-7998 or filling out the form on this page.